Brinsmead: gracious neighbors?

Saturday, November 3, 2018
    Feast of Richard Hooker, Priest, Anglican Apologist, Teacher, 1600
    Commemoration of Martin of Porres, Dominican Friar, 1639
Meditation:
The LORD is gracious and compassionate,
    slow to anger and rich in love.
    —Psalm 145:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The two great features of Protestant theology are its doctrines of justification by faith and the law as the rule of life. This is a synthesis of New Testament grace and Old Testament ethics. With this synthesis, Protestants have solved the problem of finding a gracious God, but they have not solved the problem of finding gracious neighbors. They can fellowship with God because he is gracious; but they find it difficult to fellowship with one another, because they are not so gracious.
    ... Robert D. Brinsmead (b. 1933), “Justification by Faith”
    See also Ps. 145:8; 28:3; 31:11; 86:15; 100:5; 103:8; Jonah 4:2; Eph. 2:4-5; 1 Pet. 2:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show me how to love my neighbors better. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Clement: the princeliest goods

Friday, November 2, 2018
    Feast of All Souls
Meditation:
    Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
    —John 13:4-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Lord ate from a common bowl, and asked the disciples to sit on the grass. He washed their feet, with a towel wrapped around His waist—He, who is the Lord of the universe! He drank water from a jug of earthenware, with the Samaritan woman. Christ made use His aim, not extravagance... We are not to throw away those things which can benefit our neighbor. Goods are called good because they can be used for good: they are instruments for good, in the hands of those who use them properly.
    ... St. Clement of Alexandria (150?-220?), The Ante-Nicene Fathers, v. II, Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, trs., Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885, p. 247, 595 (see the book)
    See also John 13:3-5; Hag. 1:6; Matt. 14:19; John 4:6-26
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You use the simplest things to bless us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Anstice: O Lord! how happy should we be

Thursday, November 1, 2018
    Feast of All Saints
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”
    —Matthew 6:28-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
O Lord! how happy should we be,
If we could cast our cares on Thee,
    If we from self could rest;
And feel at heart that One above,
In perfect wisdom, perfect love,
    Is working for the best.

For when we kneel and cast our care
Upon our God in humble prayer,
    With strengthened souls we rise,
Sure that our Father Who is nigh,
To hear the ravens when they cry,
    Will hear His children’s cries.

O may these anxious hearts of ours
The lesson learn from birds and flowers,
    And learn from self to cease,
Leave all things to our Father’s will,
And in His mercy trusting still,
    E’en in affliction, peace!
    ... Joseph Anstice (1808-1836), [1836], A Library of Religious Poetry: a collection of the best poems of all ages, Philip Schaff, New York: Dodd, Mead, 1880, p. 521-522 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:28-30; Ps. 102:1; Jer. 24:5-7; Matt. 10:29; Rom. 5:3-4; 8:28,35-39; 2 Cor. 4:15-17; Jas. 1:2-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to care only for Your will.

CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Guinness: the use of outrage

Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Meditation:
    No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
    —1 Corinthians 2:7-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Because it lacks [the] element of outrage, the modern church needs to be reminded that, if her life and institutions are being strangled by a dying culture, then she is choking on the very truths which she has herself betrayed.
    ... Os Guinness (b. 1941), The Dust of Death, Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1973, p. 386-387 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 2:7-8; Matt. 11:25; John 7:48; 1 Cor. 1:26-28; 2:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant discernment to Your church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Luther: more than they dared ask

Tuesday, October 30, 2018
    Commemoration of Martin Luther, Teacher, Reformer, 1546
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
    —Mark 11:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired, although not in the hour or in the measure, or the very thing which they ask; yet they will obtain something greater and more glorious than they had dared to ask.
    ... Martin Luther (1483-1546), Watchwords for the Warfare of Life, Elizabeth Rundle Charles, ed., New York: M. W. Dodd, 1869, p. 71 (see the book)
    See also Mark 11:23-24; Matt. 7:7; 21:22; Mark 11:24; Luke 11:9-10; John 16:24; 2 Cor. 12:8-9; 1 John 5:14-15
Quiet time reflection:
    You bless Your people, Lord, far better than we could have imagined. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

Feather: praying the truth

Monday, October 29, 2018
    Commemoration of James Hannington, Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, Martyr in Uganda, 1885
Meditation:
    [Solomon:] “And now, O LORD, God of Israel, let your word that you promised your servant David come true.”
    —2 Chronicles 6:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    After saying our prayers, we ought to do something to make them come true.
    ... William Feather (1889-1981), in the William Feather Magazine
    See also 2 Chr. 6:17; 2 Sam. 7:25-29; Jer. 11:4-5; Pr. 3:27-28; Acts 16:9-10; Jas. 2:15-17; 1 John 3:16-18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant that I may always pray the truth to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth

MacDonald: reduced to the best

Sunday, October 28, 2018
    Feast of Simon & Jude, Apostles
Meditation:
    We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
    —2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Some natures will endure an immense amount of misery before they feel compelled to look there for help whence all help and healing comes. They cannot believe that there is verily an unseen, mysterious power, till the world and all that is in it has vanished in the smoke of despair; till cause and effect is nothing to the intellect, and possible glories have faded from the imagination; then, deprived of all that made life pleasant or hopeful, the immortal essence, lonely and wretched and unable to cease, looks up with its now unfettered and wakened instinct to the source of its own life—to the possible God who, notwithstanding all the improbabilities of His existence, may yet perhaps be, and may yet perhaps hear His wretched creature that calls. In this loneliness of despair, life must find The Life: for joy is gone, and life is all that is left; it is compelled to seek its source, its root, its eternal life. This alone remains a possible thin g. Strange condition of despair into which the Spirit of God drives a man—a condition in which the Best alone is the Possible!
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), David Elginbrod, vol. 2 [1863], Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1871, p. 155-156 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 4:8-9; Ps. 12:1-2; 13; 46:1-3; 121:1-2; 130:1-4; Matt. 6:31-34; 2 Cor. 1:8-10; Phil. 4:11-13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, at the end of my search is always You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth